There are a few things that government can learn from successful businesses. Truth be told, there are an infinite number of things that government can learn from businesses. The first one is the most important though. The first rule of business is to put the consumer first. The consumer has a need, you fill the need. If you fill the need, then everyone is happy. In fact, if you do this without harming the consumer in any way, chances are that they will then tell their friends about your product. Then your product grows organically, which is in all likelihood, the best way to grow a business. If you do it this way (as many well-known companies do), your costs are greatly reduced, and you don’t have to worry about many things like marketing budgets and the like. In fact, you can just keep on getting wealthier if you continue to hold the consumer first.

This is what government needs to figure out.

The government is an extension of the people. The purpose of government is to secure the rights of the people who have instituted the government over themselves. (This is obviously how it works in a democratic republic, and not all societies. But I live in a democratic republic, and so I don’t see the point of writing about how China needs to learn from business.) So clearly, under this definition of government, it is fairly limited in what it can do and what it is allowed to do.

However, the government is naturally inclined to expand its power. This isn’t an unexpected outcome, as it is human to expand our authority and power. So when government decides to expand, there are many considerations to…consider. Economic cost, cost on freedom, manpower cost, etc. These should all be discussed at length. The expansion of government is like a new product line at a company: all of the factors should be considered fully. There is one factor, though, that companies (the good ones) discuss, that governments don’t.

This factor is what is best for the consumer/individual.

Is what the government is planning to do good for the individual, or is it bad. With companies, people are not forced to buy their products, so they only plan according to their normal customer base. With governments, the entire population is their customer. Clearly, you can’t make everyone happy. So let’s choose a number. I think 80% is pretty good.

‘80%? Nothing will ever get done!’

True. Which would be great. Only the really, really important things would get done. If the government is planning on spending the money of the 100% on the 5%, something is amiss. The money of the 100% should be spent at least on the majority, and at most on decisions that affect the 100% as a whole.

This is just the beginning of my thoughts on the matter, and I will go into greater detail in a later post. It is just something I have been considering for a while, and I thought I should at least try to get it out there. Lemme know what you think.